ETCHED IN OLD STONE: "Our Little Asa"

SMITH-Dort/Winsor-Secord/Harris 

In a family tree that now exceeds sixteen-thousand ancestors, there are also a few question marks dangling from important branches that were clipped short due to a lack of documentation, unverified. For almost a decade, I have been searching for the parents of my great, great, great, great grandmother LYDIA HARRIS, unknown or misidentified by other descendants whose genealogical detective-work led us all down old roots that now appear to be attached to other, unrelated, trees. It happens. Most frequently, it happens with maternal ancestry when the surname is not easily followed, or when given names are very popular.  Lydia, for instance, was a very common post-Revolution name, particularly in the numerous, tentative Harris households of Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York that hang on my tree by question marks. My challenge all these years has been to find the right household. And, in a very roundabout way, I may have done just that.

Tucked among the aging graves in the Dort plot of a quiet cemetery in Wayne County, Michigan -where the lilacs once grew- a small headstone displaying a lamb may hold the key to solving the mysterious origins of my fourth great grandmother, LYDIA HARRIS. The inscription reads "OUR LITTLE ASA - Infant son of A.J. & L.S. DORT - Died Dec 17 1880." Although few facts are known about little Asa’s tragically brief life, the 1880 census suggests that he was born in February of that year. As the eighth and final child of Andrew Jackson and Lydia Secord (Winsor) Dort, he was my great grandmother’s little brother and LYDIA HARRIS’s great grandson. Here is how I think little Asa solved our Harris family mystery.

Firstly, ASA was not a familiar name in our Dort/Winsor line …at least until I began to look closely beneath the leaves. Since Asa’s father was an only child, it seemed reasonable to start with an exploration of his mother’s branch of the family tree. Here’s what I found:

·         Asa’s grandfather (Lydia Winsor’s father), Mortimer Winsor had no brothers or uncles named Asa.

·         Asa’s grandmother (Lydia Winsor’s mother), Mary Abigail Secord, did. Her brother's name was Asa Pitts Secord.

Since both Mary Abigail and Asa Pitts were children of Joshua Secord and LYDIA HARRIS, it seemed likely that there might be a link. And, since I had only a jumble of sometimes erroneous, conflicting records collected for Lydia Harris, and even fewer facts about Mary Abigail, I began to explore available records for her brother in the hope that his family tree might reveal more information about their mother. It did.

With other contributors’ hints for Asa Pitts Secord’s ancestry, I was able to discover a new Harris family line for their mother, LYDIA HARRIS. When I explored this possibility, here’s what I found:

·         Lydia Harris is linked to Mayflower passengers. Interesting …I will have to get back to it, since the link seems likely.

·         Imagine my surprise when I discovered that -through this heretofore unknown family line- our LYDIA HARRIS had a brother named …wait for it… Asa Pitts Harris. The Fifth!

·         Well, technically, the “Pitts” part did not go back five generations, but the Asa Harris did!

·         So, if this lineage is correct (and I’m confident it is), LYDIA HARRIS and Asa Pitts Harris are children of Col. ASA Harris, IV and Lydia PITTS. Ding! Ding! Ding!

Colonel Asa’s father, of course, was another Asa, married to Faith McCall. Hers are the verified roots we will later trace back to the Mayflower. Until then, I’ll be exploring this very interesting branch of our family history discovered with the help of “Our Little Asa.” Requiescat in pace.
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